Motor vehicles are generally provided with bumpers in the front and rear for the purpose of reducing the shock to the occupants and the vehicle body when the vehicle collides with an object at low speed. According to some of the recent automotive designs, the bumper and the fender are given with a unified appearance, and considerable efforts are paid to make the boundary between the bumper and the fender as unnoticeable as possible. Typically, the upper part of the bumper is painted in the same color as the other part of the vehicle body, and the bumper is separated from the other part of the vehicle by a horizontal parting line.
In such a case, since the dimensions of the bumper, the fenders and other parts of vehicle bodies cannot be made highly precise, and some dimensional errors are inevitable, it is important to prevent any unattractive appearance due to dimensional errors, particularly in the areas of transition from the bumper to the other parts of the vehicle body, such as the fenders. Generally speaking, the vertical positioning of a bumper is not a major problem because there is some overlapping between the vehicle body and the bumper. However, the lateral spacing between the bumper and the fender is more noticeable to the viewer.
Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 60-193849 discloses a mounting structure for the side portion of a bumper. According to this utility model, a pair of tongue plates 11 project inwardly from the bumper 4 and are passed through the slots 12 provided in the bracket 7 which is fixedly attached to the fender 3. The free end of each of the tongue plates 11 is gripped by a pair of spring loaded clips 17 (each pair being pivotally connected to each other through a pivot pin 20). The surfaces of the tongue plate and the working ends of the clips are provided with irregular surfaces for secure engagement therebetween, and the free ends of the clips abut the opposing surface of the bracket 12, thereby positively defining the spacing between the bumper and the fender. This prior art offers a well defined lateral positioning of the bumper with respect to the fender, but is not adjustable and therefore cannot accommodate any dimensional errors in the relevant parts.
Japanese Utility Model Application No. 60-158952 teaches an adjustable bumper mounting structure. A pair of parallel racks 8 and 9 are attached to the fender and the bumper, and are received in a casing 11. A pinion 10 meshes with both the racks 8 and 9. By turning the pinion 10, the spacing between the bumper and the fender can be adjusted, and the racks and the pinion are fixed at their adjusted positions by the friction imposed upon the racks by the casing.
However, for improved unified appearance of a bumper and a fender, it is advantageous to separate them not only by a horizontal parting line but also by a vertical parting line. In such a case, the width of the vertical parting line is highly noticeable and is desired to be controlled as precisely as possible in spite of the inevitable dimensional errors of the body structure. The above mentioned and other prior art is inadequate to control the width of a vertical parting line between a bumper and a fender in an automotive body structure having a unified appearance.